Student Blog

A carpet changed my life @thefuerst

This week is our build your studio week. You probably know what this means. Painting the walls, moving furniture around and decorate some stuff. But there is much more behind that. It’s also a process and a new stone mile in this course. It will decide how and in which environment we are working the next year.

I experienced myself how essential and which huge impact your work environment can have on you. In my former workplace, we got a new floor in the office. We, my colleagues and I, had to come up with ideas how to structure it and how we want to work together. At first, it seemed like an easy task. Like decorating and restructuring your own room; everybody loves it, be honest. But to think about other peoples behaviors, preferences and workflows is a very different task.

At SCA we recently moved our comfy chairs and sofas from Dunbar into our studio, which won’t be our studio any longer. This seemed not a big deal because we used the two rooms pretty equally, but for me, suddenly the whole world was turned upside down. But not in a negative way, it finally got into the right position, like it always was meant to be. Sitting in the smaller space instead of this large townhall makes me more open, more focused and finally feel part of the whole class now. Masterclasses in Dunbar felt like sitting in the audience of a theatre play, stand up comedy show or ted talk. It didn’t invite me to participate at all. Not that I didn’t care. For Example, every person has his favorite Ted talk which changes his/her point of view, but did you participate in it? If you are watching Ted talks like me on youtube, probably not.This shows me again how influential our environment is. Whether it’s the people or the furniture, which we are surrounded by. It’s changing our behavior if we like it or not.

This realization made me think about my whole experience so far in the UK again. And finally, lead to the best investment I made so far in London.

A light grey carpet at 26 pounds.

It might sound stupid to other people, but for me, it’s damn relevant.This little 2,2m and 60 cm long carpet is making my room and also my life more comfortable and enjoyable. It keeps my feets warm while working at my study desk and provides me with a warm and cuddly surface when smoking out of the window. It also reminds me of my old flat, because of it’s the similar color back in Austria. It makes me more focused, calmer and life itself more satisfying. And it was only 26 pound!

Choosing your work environment, whether it’s your furniture or your people, especially your partner is going to have a huge impact on our future work. So we better take this week seriously and realize the potential we can set free with our new studio or choosing potential work buddies.